Tonight I Dream. Tomorrow I Do!

Healthy Eating…No to diets…Tofu

Welcome it’s that time again when you never know what I am going to say and neither do I half the time…It just flows once the fingers touch the keyboard…

As you know by now I have been having a few rants and also telling how I know absolutely nothing about tofu…Tofu well this tofu virgin is no more I have cooked my first tofu dish today a recipe from my blogging friend Dolly from Kookkoscherkitchen…

But before I give you my verdict and tell you what I think the lovely Tori has written a guest post about the said Tofu…Welcome, Tori and over to you my dear…

Drumroll please Maestro!

First of all, thanks to Carol for inviting me to post on her blog.

So… I’ve been a full-time vegetarian for about ten years. I say it like that because I’ve had what my brother calls ‘vegetarian phases’ since I was a small child, where I’d refuse to eat meat, and giving me any would result in it either sitting on my plate uneaten or ending up in the dog. But even my brother has to acknowledge this is more than a ‘vegetarian phase’ this time since I haven’t eaten any animal products beyond eggs and cheese – and some would argue honey – in about ten years.

There’s a lot I don’t know about a lot of things, including cooking. But I have tried some new foods since becoming a vegetarian and learned one or two things about them in the process. One of those foods is tofu.

As I mentioned to Carol when she asked if I’d like to do a post for her blog, I’m far from being an expert on tofu. However, since I have picked up a few things over the years, and there are those who don’t know the first thing about what they’re meant to do with tofu, I thought I’d share a couple of tips to help anyone thinking of trying tofu get started.

So, here are my tips. Others may have different opinions, but here’s what I have to say about tofu:

Tofu works for sweet and savoury dishes.

Most people use tofu to make savoury dishes. To be honest, that’s how I usually use it. However, it can also be used to make sweet dishes.

Some ideas for using it include:

As a meat substitute in salads, curries, etc. It especially works well as a chicken substitute. Just grill or fry it, and add it to your favourite dish. I especially love it with sweet and sour sauce and boiled rice.

In the place of scrambled eggs. Scramble up some tofu, add some tomatoes and hash browns (or slices of fried potato) and you have a tasty breakfast that even a vegan will eat.

As a dairy free or vegan-friendly ‘cream cheese’ substitute. Silken tofu especially can be used in the place of dairy alternatives to make desserts like cheesecake vegan-friendly, or even just to reduce the dairy intake of someone who isn’t vegan.

The type of recipe determines the kind of tofu you need.

Whether you need firm or silken tofu depends on the type of recipe you’re making. As a rule of thumb, use firm for savoury recipes, and silken for sweet ones. You can do it the other way around, but using firm for savoury recipes and silken for sweet ones yields the best results. At least, I think so.

Don’t forget to marinate your tofu.

No matter what recipe you’re using it in, you absolutely must marinade your tofu. Tofu has no real flavour of its own, so takes on the flavours of whatever it’s marinated in. This is why it can be used to do both sweet and savoury dishes. So marinade your tofu for at least a little while before cooking. If you don’t, you’ll have something tasteless that will be like eating a sponge. At least, I imagine it would be like eating a sponge; having not eaten any sponges, I’m only guessing as to the taste comparison.

Beyond that, experiment, and remember: just because you don’t like it prepared one way, doesn’t mean you don’t like tofu at all. If you try it and don’t enjoy it the first time, try it a couple of different ways before you decide you don’t like it.

One final comment: tofu – in case you don’t know – is what’s left after the liquid is drained from soya beans to make soya milk. If you have an allergy to soy products, you should avoid trying tofu.

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Bio:

Victoria Zigler is a blind poet and children’s author who was born and raised in the Black Mountains of Wales, UK, and is now living on the South-East coast of England, UK, with her hubby and furkids. Victoria – or Tori, if you prefer – has been writing since she knew how, and describes herself as a combination of Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter books: Hermione’s thirst for knowledge and love of books, combined with Luna’s alternative way of looking at the world. She has a wide variety of interests, designed to exercise both the creative and logical sides of her brain, and dabbles in them at random depending on what she feels like doing at any given time.

To date, Tori has published nine poetry books and more than 40 children’s books, with more planned for the future. She makes her books available in multiple eBook formats, as well as in both paperback and audio. She’s also contributed a story to the sci-fi and fantasy anthology Wyrd Worlds II, which is available in eBook only.

Thank you so much, Tori, I now know a little more about Tofu…My experiment in the kitchen went well today I didn’t realise Tofu held so much water…

I made a recipe from Dolly @ Koolkosherkitchen Did we like it?… I wasn’t sure on the texture but will take Tori’s advice and try another recipe..The sauce was lovely and the sesame seeds added a bit of toastiness and texture it was the tofu, not a feeling I am used to with food a bit spongy but will try again as I have some tofu left.

Thank you once again to Tori for chatting to us about Tofu… please pay her a visit and say hello she would love to hear from you…

I have certainly learnt more about tofu today I hope for those of you who were like me now know a little more if you enjoyed this post please share on your social media…Thank you xx

I forgot to mention in the post: you can make your tofu firmer by putting it on a hard surface between two layers of paper towels, and pressing down on it with a chopping board. This also gets rid of some of the moisture if you find it too watery. The more you do it, the firmer your tofu.